B-Roll, Video, Audio, Photos & Rush Transcript: Governor Hochul Joins Capital Region Leaders to Highlight Let Them Build Agenda and Tour Mixed-Income Housing Project Under[...]

Earlier today, Governor Kathy Hochul joined Capital Region leaders on a tour of Sol Apartments, a mixed-income housing project in Troy that is underway to highlight her "Let Them Build" agenda, a series of landmark reforms to speed up housing and infrastructure development and lower costs as part of her 2026 State of the State. This initiative will spur a series of common sense reforms to New York's State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA) and executive actions to expedite critical categories of projects that have been consistently found to not have significant environmental impacts, but for too long have been caught up in red tape and subject to lengthy delays. Together, these actions will make it easier to build the housing and infrastructure that localities want and that New Yorkers need.

B-ROLL of the Governor touring the Sol Apartments can be found on YouTube and in TV quality (h.264, mp4) format.

VIDEO: The event is available to stream on YouTube here and TV quality video is available here (h.264, mp4).

AUDIO: The Governor's remarks are available in audio form here.

PHOTOS: The Governor's Flickr page will post photos of the event here.

A rush transcript of the Governor's remarks is available below:

 Good morning, everyone. Great to be back in the fabulous city of Troy, prominently featured in Gilded Age movies and shows, and it's fun when they come to town and bring the whole crew here. And I'm joined by some extraordinary leaders. We literally have six of the nine Capital Region Mayors joining us as well as John McDonald, who's playing hooky just a little bit from the Capitol, as am I, but we'll give him a pass on this. But I do want to recognize our mayors because these are the heart and soul of our region. These are the people that are doing the hard work. Their neighbors know them, they're recognized walking down the street. They're told every single problem, large or small. I've been there.

So let me just say hello to Mayor Carmella Mantello, the city of Troy, and thank her for what she's done with this incredible jewel. Sometimes I bop into Troy and I see her on the street corner, so we have run into each other. And of course across the river from Albany is Mayor Dorcey Applyrs, who's done a great job and I look forward to deepening our relationship and partnership over many years. From the city of Rensselaer, we have John DeFrancesco. I want to thank him for his support and he's happy to get some support from the state recently - we'll come visit there as well. Watervliet is represented by Mayor Charles Patricelli. We've been up there many times as well. Bill Keeler from Cohoes, as well as Mayor Joe Ferris from the city of Hudson. And of course, we have our Troy Common Council President Sue Steele.

This is the dream team and you're also going to hear from two individuals who are really making a difference here, and that is Jeff Mirel, the principal of Rosenblum Companies, which is why we're here today. What a company this is that is so forward thinking and embracing technologies and ideas to make a project right here in Troy, a place - if you remember what this block used to be - it was an abandoned bank, one story. A throwback to the urban renewal days when people decided tearing down these magnificent brownstones was a good idea and you put up a one story bank that looked like it was right out of Soviet Russia. I digress, but if you go through many of our Upstate communities, they have been ruined by the 1970s architects, and if I ever meet one of them someday, I'm going to tell them that because there was a lot of history and character and charm that was destroyed from here across the entire Erie Canal and down the Hudson River. And now we're trying to make up for many of the wrongs of the past. And so, projects like this, a housing project which is going to create 71 units, you'll hear from Jeff how incredible this is, what they're doing with the energy efficiencies. It's all geothermal, the insulation is second to none, and the way that they're trying to just help drive down energy costs in buildings like this is really a role model for what I want to see elsewhere across the state.

So we'll be talking more about that, but also we have Habitat for Humanity represented here as well - Christine Shuti and you'll hear from her about why what we're trying to do across the river in Albany and in the Capitol right now is so critically important for projects like this. This project was approved a couple of years ago, 2023 actually, three years ago. Start to be done this summer. You'll hear from Jeff about the delays, the bureaucratic delays, after all the local approvals. It's zoned properly. You have the whole checklist of everything that has to be done to get approvals, and then you have a 50-year-old law in the State of New York, known as SEQR, which at the time was necessary, but since 1975, many other laws have been supervening or intervening that now make that unnecessary in many of these housing projects.

And so, that's what I'm talking about. I'm talking about cutting the red tape, breaking down barriers and letting communities build. And again, these are only projects where the local officials want them to happen, that's already previously disturbed land, so we're not talking about pristine fields and farmlands and forests. We're talking about downtown areas and suburban areas that have already been disrupted. I'm just saying, let's remove the sometimes two years extra level of review that is just so commonplace and has always been ingrained in the process for so many years and decades that no one ever stopped and asked the question, "Why are we doing this?" That's what I do. I walk through that Capitol and look at laws, I look at projects, I say, "Why are we doing it this way?" Because the status quo is rarely acceptable to me. You see that in many of the other initiatives I'm taking on, but this is one I feel passionately about, having spent 14 years reviewing local projects as a town board member - the planning board review, the zoning board review, the IDA review, the traffic safety board review and the town board review and the environmental review that's done at the local level.

So, I know those systems are in place. They're important to me. I would never compromise on any of them, but this is a way we can unlock the housing that has to happen in communities like Troy and all the communities represented across this entire state because we have young people, graduates of RPI and seniors who want to downsize to be part of the vitality of a downtown like Troy, and they can't find housing. And if we can remove the barriers from the state level, work with the local governments, work with developers who are visionary and forward thinking, and start rethinking our communities' downtowns and suburbia and rural areas, we can finally have the capacity that says, "Yes, we have a home for you right here in New York." And, as we've seen in other communities that I've toured like New Rochelle, you build more housing, guess what? The rents come down, not just stop going up, not staying the same, but they're literally going down because of the capacity they're building.

So I'm very excited about this project. This is one of my favorite things to do - is to get out of the Capitol - but also take on a problem like the fact that it takes 56 percent longer to build a project in New York State than other states - process that. 56 percent longer to build a project in New York, because of laws like SEQR, than it does elsewhere. I want to make sure that we are allies to our communities. We let you have the vision you want to be realized, and having lived that experience and knowing the power that Albany has, as Governor, I'm committed in this Budget to make the reforms we need to have so we can let these projects continue. So again, we're not rolling back protections. We're not eliminating local review. We're not saying anything goes. We're just saying let's inject some common sense into this. And I'm very excited about this.

And also all of my communities here who are pro-housing communities as we launched the most ambitious housing plan in 50 years, got it through the Legislature and have put money on the table, real money - $750 million that's available every year for communities that are committed to meeting growth targets. And they're benefiting now from programs like the Downtown Revitalization Initiative, New York Main Street programs, extra money for sewer and water initiatives, which are also very important.

So I'm going to continue that funding as we continue to grow the number - the first year was about 10 or 20 pro housing communities. Now we have over 400 and more to come. That's all I have to say. I want them to build. Let's start building everybody. Thank you. Jeff Mirel, the Principal of Rosenblum Companies, I'd like to hear from you on what's so extraordinary about this project, but also why what we're doing in the Capitol makes a real difference.

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